


Supernaut

by Wolfsheart



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Enemies to Friends, Gen, Hurt Loki (Marvel), Hurt Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Protective Loki (Marvel), Protective Nebula, Songfic, Your savior is here, caregiver loki, loki to the rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21952258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfsheart/pseuds/Wolfsheart
Summary: Loki survives his death onThe Statesman.  Tony Stark leaves his goodbye message and then resigns himself to death.  Then theBenatarhas a surprise visitor and savior: Loki.
Relationships: Loki & Nebula (Marvel), Loki & Tony Stark, Nebula & Tony Stark
Comments: 16
Kudos: 228





	Supernaut

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kleenexwoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kleenexwoman/gifts).



> This is from a [mini fic prompt on Tumblr](http://sheisstrangerthanfiction.tumblr.com/post/182121552177/send-me-characters-and-a-letter-and-ill-write). The prompt was given to me by [kleenexwoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kleenexwoman): Fire/Flames; Loki. So, Happy Hanukkah, lady, and here's your ficlet at last. It wound up a lot longer than I thought it would.

^

_I want to reach out and touch the sky  
I want to touch the sun but I don't need to fly  
I'm gonna climb up every mountain of the moon  
And find a distant man a-waving his spoon_

_I've crossed the ocean, turned every bend  
I found the crossing near a golden rainbow's end  
I've been through magic and through life's reality  
I've lived a thousand years and it never bothered me_

_Got no religion, don't need no friends  
Got all I want and I don't need to pretend  
Don't try to reach me, 'cause I'd tear up your mind  
I've seen the future and I've left it behind_

Whatever pieces of Loki were left in the wreckage of _The Statesman_ were intact enough that healing from death...again...took only as long as Thanos' snap that ended half of all life across the known universe. 

Ironically, Loki didn't die in the snap. 

He'd been cold after Thor's body floated to...wherever it had once his unconsciousness pried him from the Trickster's corpse. Loki distinctly remembered that from his place at the gates of Valhalla; that alone told him that his death had come as an honorable sacrifice, and only after kissing his mother and father goodbye – for now – because he'd left unfinished business behind, did he wake up without Thor as his blanket. 

Through whatever grace of the Norns that still existed, Loki stood on that piece of the ship that had held his dead body. He studied the stars, charted the constellations, found himself staring at Lokabrenna with a smile as it guided him. It was difficult to breathe as if Thanos' hand was still around his throat, and it was good he didn't need to speak words right away to summon the pieces of the ship around him, soldering it together with what magic he could bring immediately to his fingertips. His windpipe and voice box had been crushed, and it would take days to heal them unless he dug deep into the secret supply of golden apples he'd stored away ages ago in a dimensional pocket. Or unless Eir could come to his rescue, but he didn't know where she was. She and several chests of those apples had been on the escape ship with Brunnhilde, Korg, and half of the Asgardians. 

Loki hoped they'd found a safe course and stayed out of Thanos' reach. 

*****

Tony just finished making his goodbye message to Pepper and anyone else who would find his helmet, the only part of his suit to survive, and he hoped that she and the rest of the Avengers were still alive and not piles of dust. He'd been days without food, without water, and the oxygen was running low. Soon, he would resemble an ear of corn that had been missed during the harvest, dried out on the stalk inside the husk. Nebula would survive because she required none of those things anymore. Tony hated to leave her all alone, though. It made him feel guilty that he would be...gone...soon, and she would have no one left to watch her back. All of her people had been killed by the asshole who claimed to be her father, and there was no one else to take care of her. He tapped into the computer bank on his helmet again.

"Added to this...goodbye...thing, when you find this, you'll meet an incredibly awesome young lady named Nebula, and I want you to take care of her because I can't. She's watched my back this whole time, and...and you just..." Tony coughed hard and rough and spat out what felt like a chunk of lung, even though he knew it wasn't. Space dust and whatever was left of the moisture in his sinuses. 

"...just do this for me. Please? Okay...thanks." 

His head fell back against the wall, and his eyes closed. He dreamed of his life back on Earth, about all of his friends, about Pepper, about all the accomplishments he'd achieved and the ones he hadn't yet. His heart slowed, his breathing calmed, and said goodbye to his life. 

*****

When the flash of light flooded his eyes through his closed lids, Tony let loose with every creative variety of swear word he could remember. Even dead – he assumed he was dead – he could remember quite a lot. This light was surely the proof of an afterlife or god that he'd never believed in, come now to kick his atheist ass. He started to crack open his eyelids, to face whatever angry deity he pissed off with his disbelief, and the light shifted from white to deep green. The heat he felt surprised him; wasn't it supposed to be cold...to be dead?

As his vision came into better focus, Tony thought the swirl of flames was less like the dust spiral of the Tasmanian devil and more an elaborate scarf dance where the scarves were all set on fire. Green fire. Green fire emanating a cold-heat that sent prickles all over his skin. If he had the energy, he'd jump away in case this was just some other minion of Thanos come to finish them off. Instead, he remained in his near- withered state, muscles screaming in pain when he tensed. 

A gun cocked; a very big automatic space gun that would likely blow a hole in the ship when it hit the intended target. Nebula stood vigilant near Tony, aiming at the intruder aboard their drifting coffin. 

The silence is heavy, and then Nebula cautioned, "Stay where you are, Stark." 

"I...wasn't going anywhere, T.A.R.D.I.S. Girl. My legs kinda can't move right now," Tony replied to his new friend. 

Tony would admit if pressed that he'd only _thought_ he'd lived a strange and wild and debauched life before and after he became Iron Man. It took discovering that aliens existed for him to realize that he was just a human with an ordinary vanilla life like most Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropists. If he made it out of this alive, he'd have to go on a bragging spree to Elon and Hammer, provided they weren't now occupying the old time fancy ashtrays at the Plaza, covered in cigarette butts. 

While Nebula aimed her gun, waiting for anything solid to shoot at, the flames became smaller, swirled closer to whatever form they concealed. Her finger slowly tightened on the trigger, and she had no breath nor heartbeat to cause her to shake. 

The Mechanic, however, couldn't do much more than shake where he held up the _Benatar's_ wall. 

"Nebula, child of the Luphomoid...daughter of Thanos," rasped the voice that both Nebula and Tony recognized. Even though Tony was half out of it, he still recognized that voice, though he remembered it being smoother, like warm honey sliding over cold cream, and his eyes fought to regain their focus. 

"Don't call me the daughter of that monster again," Nebula snarled and readied to blast this intruder all the way to Knowhere if necessary, especially if he spoke that bastard's name just one more time. 

The flames finally absorbed into the figure until the man's eyes glowed with them. Pale hands, still healing from bruises and scrapes, brushed down the front of his torn coat of green and black leather. 

"Silver-tongue. You live," Nebula hedged and took a closer step to Tony when that piercing stare turned to him. 

Loki straightened his shoulders, and his lips quirked into something that might pass as a smile.

"Yes. I live, but only after I met my parents at the gate of Valhalla and was sent back here," he stated. Loki walked closer and reached out a hand to nudge the barrel of the gun away from his head. "I'm no threat to you. Nor to him." He nodded toward Tony. "Hello, Stark." Loki would've purred the greeting, but his throat was still tender, still contused. He'd consumed one of the golden apples, and swallowing had been so agonizing that he'd nearly given up on the healing fruit. 

Tony dragged his tongue across his dry lips, little good that it did. He managed a smile. 

"Rock of Ages! Good to see you, even if...you're here to go full psycho again and kill me," Tony hailed and lifted a hand that dropped weakly back to his leg. 

Loki's brows furrowed, and he crossed the rest of the distance between them, lowering himself to his knees at Tony's side. He reached out and touched Tony's face, tilted it back and forth, touched two fingers at his throat to feel just how weak his pulse beat was. Then he stared into Tony's eyes and even lifted up his eyelids wider, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. 

"Come now, Stark. I've already been dead too many times. No need for us both to be drama queens about it. You've a planet to resuscitate," Loki scolded kindly.

With one gesture, he held a drinking horn and shifted around until he sat beside Tony, helping him to drink of the cool, clean water inside. 

"So, you died?" Nebula asked as she lowered her weapon and crouched nearby, not wanting to leave her friend in the hands of someone she knew to be dangerous when he wanted to be. Though the Other had weakened him easily enough; over time, naturally, and with enough torture to force Nebula to leave before it was through, eager to be far away from his screams. 

"Oh quite. I died once on Svartalfheim, and then just...a month ago, I think? Yes. Your father..." Loki cleared his throat and winced when he felt like gargling broken glass. "...sorry, _Thanos_ killed me. Strangled...shattered my...wind..." It became difficult to speak when the fear took his breath. So he gestured at his throat. "I was dead, and now...I'm not, and it's a good thing, too, isn't it, Stark? It seems to me I found you just in the nick of time." Loki cupped his hand to Tony's cheek and forehead, as if to discover if he suffered a fever. He set the drinking horn in Tony's weak hands and plucked a golden apple from a 'pocket' along with one of his knives. 

Nebula flinched when she saw the steel in Loki's hand and started to bring her weapon up again, but he stilled her. Assured her when he started to slice the apple and cut it into small pieces. She was astonished by the Lie-Smith's caretaking skills. He was nothing like the hissing, biting, nasty wildcat she and Gamora had dragged back to Thanos when they'd apprehended him and then to the Other for the gamut of torture and other goodies meant to break him. 

Tony eyed Loki with an equal amount of curiosity and suspicion. He drank from the horn and when the water hit his tongue, he wanted to gulp it down and even whined when Loki wouldn't let him. When the small bites of apple were brought to his lips, he took them with caution and wondered if Loki was just trying to poison him for what happened in New York. The sweetness of the fruit, however, made him throw all caution to the wind and he chewed each piece greedily. 

"You two know each other then," Tony stated more than asked after he'd swallowed the fourth bite of apple. 

Loki magicked up a small plate and cut the rest of the apple while Tony took a moment to speak and drink more water. He would provide more food soon, but this human needed healing first. A great deal of it, from the looks of him. 

"Yes, you could say that. Nebula and her sister Gamora..."

" _What is Gamora_ ," Tony blurted out and a bubble of near-hysterical laughter erupted after. Quickly, he grew serious again and even gave a sympathetic look to Nebula.

"...were the ones who took me to Thanos when I fell from the Bifrost. When I...dropped from it willingly. Before you met me, Stark, it was their father who ordered I be broken until I worked for him. To retrieve the Tesseract... _for him_. The scepter contained yet another stone..." 

Tony gave a slight nod. 

"The mind stone, right? Yeah, we...used that." He let the exiled prince feed him more apple pieces, feeling the same surprise at Loki's gentle nature. _Is this the same guy who threw me out of my own building?_

Loki returned the nod.

"It affected me, too, and that's why...I was there. I could no more break its power until it was broken from me, and by then, the Chitauri were there...and I couldn't send them back," he explained.

Tony heard the contrite tone in his voice, even though a formal apology wasn't offered up. 

"I'll get this ship running again, and you'll fly it, Nebula. I would do it...or I would help you, but I'm going to be busy healing Stark...and myself. We'll need all our strength if we're going to remove Thanos from all known and unknown universes. We'll need our wits about us if we're going to reverse the deaths he's caused, and..." Loki paused and regarded Tony. "What of Stephen Strange? No, if Thanos was able to accomplish what he did then Strange is no longer with us, is he?" He swore under his breath when both Tony and Nebula affirmed his fears. "Right, we'll just have to figure it out once we get back to Earth."

"Earth," Tony choked and swallowed half the horn down of its contents before it filled up again. "You want to go back to Earth?" 

Loki rolled his eyes and pressed another bite into Tony's mouth.

"Of course. If Thanos did as he said he wanted to, your people will need me, and I want to find out what's become of my brother. I'm not your enemy, Stark. Not anymore. I'm a powerful ally that you desperately need." He pinched Tony's chin but not hard, just enough to turn his face to his. "I thought you were a genius, so don't be stupid and turn away my offer of help." 

"You think we can defeat him, Silver-Tongue?" Nebula asked as her hunger for revenge renewed on Loki's plans. 

The Trickster's smile returned, the one full of mischief and shenanigans and scheming. 

"I think we can. We can certainly try. What else have we to lose?" 

Loki set the plate with the remaining apple pieces in Tony's hand and then pushed himself to his feet. He met the human's eyes, and something inside him felt warm and almost...affectionate toward him. He'd felt the same in his penthouse – the offer of the drink, the banter they'd exchanged. Intelligence drew him, the arrogant sarcasm played over and over in his mind during his days in his Asgardian prison cell. 

"Trust me, Stark. At least, this one time...trust me." 

"And then when we save the world together, we can get that drink?"

Startling himself by laughing, and ignoring the discomfort it caused, Loki leaned down and squeezed Tony's emaciated shoulder. 

"I'll hold you to it at long last," Loki promised then turned to give the _Benatar_ his attention. He had to get them all home, after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> The title of the story and the lyrics are from Black Sabbath's "Supernaut."


End file.
